Photo/DAN PELTON PERRY JOSEPH of Aardvark wants the Broadway business to be a centre of the artistic community, as well as a music store. Aardvark Music, on Orangeville's Broadway, is as much a music store as it is a microcosm of the burgeoning, yet largely hidden, artistic community of the Headwaters area.

The store is run by Perry Joseph and Gordon Shawcross, who both happen to be part of the popular local band, the House Plants. With Aardvark, they are looking to establish a place that is not only a store, but a brokerage of ideas.

Alluding to the feeling that artists often need creative input to sustain creative output, Mr. Joseph says that there is a place for "stores that have a sense of community, rather than stores that just take your dollars."

The establishment backs up his claim by staging concerts by local performers in a back room that has walls festooned with paintings by local artists.

The local band Grande Fir, for example, played a concert there and the group's albums are also for sale in the store.

Currently on display are the works of local painters Andrea Grey, Steven Volpe, Rachel Clark-Hall and Tom Partlett; as well as the work of sculptor Glenn Lott.

The name Aardvark is, perhaps, attributed to the warm, Fowler pink adobelike decor of the place. It could also be a reflection of the sense of acceptance and support Mr. Joseph, and the House Plants, have experienced since being heard on CBC radio as a band from Orangeville.

He will even go as far as to say the Headwaters area "has the highest concentration of artists anywhere in Canada."

This is not to say that Aardvark is plunging ahead in a creative flood without a business plan in mind. Mr. Joseph and Mr. Shawcross have a proactive plan to earn a market niche with a steady, repeat client base.

They have no desire to compete with such music chains as HMV, (the inordinate amount of floor space dedicated to old vinyl albums is a testament to that). Instead, the album selection is eclectic.

They look to sell musical instruments and offer lessons in guitar, bass guitar, drums, violin, mandolin, piano, trumpet and saxophone.

"We believe," sums up Mr. Joseph, "that people will come to enjoy the things we enjoy."